Following the death of Terrence McKenna in the year 2000, the Esalen Institute took ownership of his voluminous library of rare texts and an uncatalogued number of his notes, diaries, and other pieces of written information that accumulated through the course of his life. On 5 February a five-alarm fire broke out in the building in Monterey that the library was kept in, destroying everything. An incredible amount of information was lost in the blaze that also consumed a couple of restaurants, a coffee shop, and several other office blocks. So many rare tomes, some dating back to the 1800's at the very least are now gone.